NEW YORK  Google Inc. reported a 61 percent increase in its net income for the first three months of the year and announced plans to split its stock 2-for-1 to preserve its leadership's control over the company in the long term.

The online search leader said Thursday that it wants to issue a new class of stock to shareholders, but the new shares won't have any voting power. Under the plan, all current stockholders would get one share of the new Class C stock for each share they now own. This effectively splits Google's stock price in half.

Google said the split is something investors have been asking for. In addition, employees given Google stock in the future will get the non-voting stock, allowing voting power to remain with existing shareholders. The same will hold true for stock-based acquisitions that Google makes.

In a letter, CEO Larry Page and fellow co-founder Sergey Brin that without change, senior leaders would eventually lose their voting power. That, they said, would undermine "our aspirations for Google over the very long term."

Since it went public in 2004, Google's founders have emphasized a need to insulate management from short-term pressures.

The new stock plan came as Google said that it earned $2.89 billion, or $8.75 per share, in the first quarter. That's up from $1.8 billion, or $5.51 per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, Google earned $10.08 per share, higher than the $9.66 that analysts polled by FactSet had expected.